Approximately 45% of the world’s population will vote in elections this year. The elections will not only determine current world politics but also the fate of the world. And the situation is not looking good.
Incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to win again in India, the world’s largest electoral democracy; former U.S. President Donald Trump is back on the stage; and, in Germany, membership of the extreme right wing AfD grew 37% last year.
There is not much to say about the course of the upcoming local elections in Turkey; you can guess. But the situation is not very different elsewhere; it’s as if the whole world were following Turkey’s step-by-step instructions for how to lose a country to dictatorship.
Start with a movement
1. Create a movement!
First, politicians come forward and claim that they are above and outside of the current political situation. They are “clean” and “not corrupt.” Their alliance is more than a political party, it’s a movement. The group then argues they are the representatives of “the true people,” unlike other political parties. This first step divides the country between true and false people, or the victimized and the oppressive elite. The movement, which is on the victims’ side, seeks to end the oppressive regime. It promises to free the real people of their chains and give them the respect they deserve. “Respect” is the keyword. The true people demand respect, which the strong man, the movement’s great leader, will forcibly obtain it from the oppressive elite. This manufactured victimhood charges from country to country, as each has a different fragile consensus. The leader invents a nonexistent victimhood by poking this fragility, or he exaggerates an existing victimhood and repackages it as his own reason for political existence, his “cause.” This cause is so vague and variable that it can be adapted to any time or situation.
Lose the logic
2. Corrupt the language! Terrorize the mind!
The most important step on the path to power is corrupting the established political language. The leader and movement unleash the stories, lies and myths that eventually paralyze the whole political arena. Their new language ignores the most basic rules of logic, even the fundamental logic of Aristotle. For example, Aristotle makes the fundamental proposition: “All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.” However, the movement’s new language would not allow this.
Aristotle: All men are mortal.
Movement member: Wait a minute! That’s what you say. We’ve heard your lies, you repressive elite. The people won’t hear any more of your lies.
Aristotle: Aren’t men mortal?
MM: They were, back in your day. How many men did you kill from starvation during World War II?
Aristotle: If you let me finish… All men are mortal. Socrates is a man.
Being correct, right or consistent is no longer important.
MM: We know all too well who Socrates is. Don’t tell us fairy tales!
Aristotle: Excuse me?
MM: For too long, you have silenced the country’s oppressed.
Aristotle: So, are you claiming that Socrates is not a man? Are you mad?
MM: Sure, sure. We’re ignorant. People like you have always said people like us are ignorant. We don’t need educated people. We need people who love their country, have the fear of God in them and hearts full with love for the cause.
Aristotle: What I’m trying to say is: therefore, Socrates is mortal. Or is he not?
MM: You would know best — aren’t you the one who killed Socrates?
Aristotle: Wha…?
This pattern is repeated over the past 20 years of political debate shows on Turkish TV. Once it has emptied political conversation with this Aristotle-maddening tactic, the movement fills the void with its own myths, stories and “rewritten” historical tales, which its followers memorize word for word. The movement’s leaders arrive on the the main stage by demanding respect. With their excessive self-confidence, they have enough power to disrespect anyone.
The rest is easy
3. Remove the shame! Who needs it anyway?
The new power has created a communication model based on lies and terrorizing the political landscape. Being correct, right or consistent is no longer important. These new morals rain upon the lower segments of the society; they apply not only to political and judicial but also to social and personal relations. The codes of social coexistence and formerly respected values are eliminated. The equality of the educated and the ignorant — not having equal rights but being equals! — is being celebrated as a revolution and the leader who made it possible is praised.
The next four steps are then easy to take:
4. Dismantle the judicial and political systems,
5. Let social opposition lock itself in a fort of humor,
6. Create a model citizen,
7. Build your own country. This final step brings the country, as it brought Turkey, to the point of “if they are going, let them go”. Now the leader is free to do whatever he wants, backed by unconditional support.
Following Turkey’s lead
Turkey provides infinite examples to prove each of these steps. It is surprising that many countries — including western countries that consider themselves to be “mature democracies” — are following Turkey’s steps exactly. Even more shocking is the repetition of the political and social conditions that gave rise to the extreme right, xenophobia and fascism in Germany — which claims to have dealt with its fascist past, at least on the official level. Recent photos showed a large group gathered in Rome, Italy’s capital, giving Nazi salutes. Analysts were quick to call this normal because Italy hadn’t dealt with its fascist past, as Germany had. Yet similar events have occurred in countries like the UK and U.S., which, under the flag of democracy, fought against the Nazi regime.
Western countries are only starting to walk the torturous roads that Turkey and India have already traveled.
A young German-Turkish academic shared interesting data with me, noting that “The political market share of Germany’s extreme right AfD party in TikTok is 70%. Yes, democracy is dying, and it’s happening on TikTok. Other parties are still considering joining TikTok, but it would cost 7 million euros each year to reach their traceability.”
Social media data shows that the right is ahead of the left, and that it is too late to make a difference in this year’s elections. But the same academic was excited to say that “while Democracy is dying in the West, rising democratic movements in the Middle Eastern and the East are much more vibrant and effective compared to the West.”
Western countries are only starting to walk the torturous roads that countries such as Turkey and India have already traveled. We have a lot to tell them. Will they listen? No, because they still don’t believe that they, too, can experience the doom that brown people have already been condemned to. But this will happen, and we will tell them. What we will tell them requires more thinking.
The seven steps I’ve mentioned here are taken from my book How To Lose A Country: The Seven Steps From Democracy to Dictatorship, which was published in several languages, but not in Turkish — for obvious reasons.
